Summer Reading 2012: New Books

The news website PolicyMic has a great post by Sarah Swong, a freshman at Yale University, about new must-read books this summer. Her selections are an interesting combination of fiction and non-fiction books, and her descriptions compelling and concise. Most of the books are available now although a few are soon to be published. A list of her selections is below along with links to their records in the Minuteman Catalog. You can read the full post on PolicyMic, an interesting social networking online news platform with articles by a wide variety of authors.

Home by Toni Morrison

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey

Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa – released on June 5

The Red House by Mark Haddon – released on June 12

Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult & daughter Samantha van Leer – released on June 26

NW by Zadie Smith – released on September 4

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll

A Wedding in Haiti by Julia Alvarez

A Sense of Direction: Pilgrimage for the Restless and the Hopeful by Gideon Lewis-Kraus

The Book Report Network

The Book Report Network is a company that provides an extensive and diverse set of book reviews. The mission of the Book Report Network is “to solve these reader dilemmas, with thoughtful book reviews, compelling features, in-depth author profiles and interviews, excerpts of the hottest new releases, contests and more every week.” The Network’s main site is the Bookreporter but their reviews are also organized by genre and reader type on a series of other websites. Links to several of their unique sites are below.

20SomethingReads.com  “Created for readers in their twenties, which we define as, ‘A decade. A state of mind. An age. A lifestyle. A time for self-discovery. A new perspective. An attitude. A philosophy. Independence. Freedom. A time to re-discover reading for pleasure – and FINALLY – read what you want.’ It is a place “where readers, writers, booksellers, librarians and twentysomething bibliophiles share the books they’re reading and the books they suggest you read as well. Before you come into your twenties most reading was by assignment for school with short stints for reading for pleasure, thus this is a time to broaden reading horizons and discover and explore books in a whole new way.”

Teenreads Created for teens, this website reviews young adult literature. One really unique feature is the Ultimate Teen Reading List. The Book Report Network describes this list as “over 400 titles that we believe are perfect choices for reading and discussing. Our dream is that schools will use this list to help them make their own for summer reading or, even better, suggest that students just read what they want from this list. How did we create our list? Titles range from young adult books to adult books that we think would be enjoyed by teens.”

Kidsreads Designed “for kids to find info about their favorite books, series and authors. Reviews of the newest titles, interviews with the coolest authors and special features on great books are our specialties.”

ReadingGroupGuides Provides book group suggestions and reading and discussion guides for a wide variety of selections.

Readers’ Advisory Blogs

Here are links to a couple of other Readers’ Advisory Blogs that provide books reviews and other interesting posts about book publishing and reading trends.

Reader’s Advisory Online Blog “Welcome to the blog for readers’ advisors and bibliophiles who work with readers. You’ll find essential news, tips, fun stuff, and a community for exploring RA issues. The blog is presented by the Reader’s Advisor Online”.

Early Word: The Publisher| Library Connection While this blog is written for librarians it valuable up-to-date information about newly published books. “This is a Blog and Web site on a mission — to give libraries the earliest information possible on the books their customers will be looking for, so they can stay ahead of demand. By giving readers what they want, when they want it, we believe libraries can increase their circulation and their support”.

Maud Newton A quirky blog with book reviews as well as posts about news in the literary world.

Reading the Past By Sarah Johnson, a reference librarian. The blog contains “reviews of new and backlist titles, offer occasional interviews and guest posts, post news and new publishing deals, and preview forthcoming titles, among other things”.

Shelf Awareness: Enlightenment for Readers  “Helps readers discover the 25 best books of the week, as chosen by our industry experts. We also have news about books and authors, author interviews and more”. Readers can subscribe to the newsletter or view them on the blog archive”. Readers can subscribe to the weekly newsletter or view the posting on the blog archive.

Blogging for a Good Book “Read a new review every day, Monday through Friday! The staff of the Williamsburg Regional Library in Virginia bring you short reviews of books, movies, and more!”

The Reader’s Advisor Online blog: links to many “Best of 2011″ lists

The Reader’s Advisor Online blog contains a compilation of links to many of the “Best Books of 2011″ lists published by major periodicals. The list is located on their blog: http://www.readersadvisoronline.com/blog/index.php/2011/12/26/best-of-2011/. The Reader’s Advisor Online blog is a great online resource for reading lists and information about new publications.